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walkitout“ Created in 2019 by an Interlocal Agreement between Seattle and King County, the Regional Homelessness Authority was supposed to take the reins on homelessness from cities around the county that often had varying approaches to homelessness. The authority is supposed to create a unified strategy implemented with united funding.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/north-king-county-cities-agree-to-fund-regional-homelessness-authority/
But most of the funding so far has been coming from Seattle, with other King County cities reluctant to turn money over to the authority and still wanting to regulate how homelessness programs operate. No surprises here. According to the article, there has been no recent funding at all for homelessness from Lake Forest Park. But for the other cities in the group, existing programs are transferred from some North King County cities to the Authority. The cities can pull back out in 2024 if they don’t like how things go. For this part of the world, regional coordination is often how big changes get their start. OTOH, previous regional coordination is how they really slowed down building new housing of all kinds in the first place, so one really does not know what to think yet. I don’t, anyway.
It’s all very discouraging. The cities are concerned about not wanting money from the Authority to go to homelessness efforts in Seattle — while most of the funding for the Authority comes from Seattle. I mean, I do _understand_ the long history of parasitism of suburbs on cities, but this is a stark reminder of it. Obviously, people go back and forth across the boundaries of these cities and Seattle every day, including homeless people.
Certainly, this is _less_ inspiring than what has recently happened in LA.
But there is some home here. Shoreline Mayor Scully “said his faith in the authority has grown as it has touted recent successes — bringing hundreds of people indoors from large, long-standing encampments and helping more than 1,200 people utilize federal housing vouchers to find permanent housing.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/north-king-county-cities-agree-to-fund-regional-homelessness-authority/
But most of the funding so far has been coming from Seattle, with other King County cities reluctant to turn money over to the authority and still wanting to regulate how homelessness programs operate. No surprises here. According to the article, there has been no recent funding at all for homelessness from Lake Forest Park. But for the other cities in the group, existing programs are transferred from some North King County cities to the Authority. The cities can pull back out in 2024 if they don’t like how things go. For this part of the world, regional coordination is often how big changes get their start. OTOH, previous regional coordination is how they really slowed down building new housing of all kinds in the first place, so one really does not know what to think yet. I don’t, anyway.
It’s all very discouraging. The cities are concerned about not wanting money from the Authority to go to homelessness efforts in Seattle — while most of the funding for the Authority comes from Seattle. I mean, I do _understand_ the long history of parasitism of suburbs on cities, but this is a stark reminder of it. Obviously, people go back and forth across the boundaries of these cities and Seattle every day, including homeless people.
Certainly, this is _less_ inspiring than what has recently happened in LA.
But there is some home here. Shoreline Mayor Scully “said his faith in the authority has grown as it has touted recent successes — bringing hundreds of people indoors from large, long-standing encampments and helping more than 1,200 people utilize federal housing vouchers to find permanent housing.”